SCOTTISH composer Anna Meredith has been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize alongside the likes of Dua Lipa, Stormzy and Laura Marling.
Meredith’s ‘FIBS’ album was described by judges as a “rich, ultra-inventive, sprawling, sublime, ambitious tsunami of synths and strings’.
The electronic music performer - who grew up in South Queensferry - reacted to the news excitedly on Twitter, posting: “SAY WHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTTTT”.
Meredith has been a composer-in-residence with the BBC’s Scottish Symphony Orchestra, opened the first night of the Proms with a piece commemorating the end of the First World War and has put together arrangements for fellow nominee Marling, as well as Sigur Ross.
SAY WHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTTTT https://t.co/k0wFS04r8W
— Anna Meredith (@AnnaHMeredith) July 23, 2020
The Mercury Prize is awarded annually to the best album released in the UK. It was set up in 1992 as an alternative to the pop-dominated Brit Awards.
This year, for the first time in the Mercury Prize’s 29-year history, female artists and female-fronted bands have outnumbered men on the shortlist.
READ MORE: Scottish composer Anna Meredith returns with new album
Lauren Laverne announced the shortlist on BBC Radio 6 this morning and described 2020 as “an extraordinary year for music”.
Here’s the full Mercury Prize shortlist for 2020:
- Laura Marling, ‘A Song For Our Daughter’
- Dua Lipa, ‘Future Nostalgia’
- Porridge Radio, ‘Every Bad’
- Sports Team, ‘Deep Down Happy’
- Kano, Hoodies ‘All Summer’
- Anna Meredith, ‘FIBS’
- Georgia, ‘Seeking Thrills’
- Lanterns on the Lake, ‘Spook the Herd’
- Moses Boyd, ‘Dark Matter’
- Charli XCX, ‘how i’m feeling now’
- Stormzy, ‘Heavy is the Head that Wears The Crown’
- Michael Kiwanuka, ‘Kiwanuka’
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